


The Birth of Ben Kenobi

by Demmora



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-24
Updated: 2014-02-24
Packaged: 2018-01-13 15:48:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1232161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Demmora/pseuds/Demmora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by a challenge set many moons ago by my lovely SSB friends, the prompt was to write about the effect Anakin Skywalker's downfall had on Obi-Wan, after learning about the death of Shmi many years later during his self-inflicted exile to the planet Tatooine. Filled with sorrow and regret, Obi-Wan enters the abandoned Tusken Raider camp, and Ben Kenobi walks out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Birth of Ben Kenobi

Obligatory Disclaimer: I own nothing ~~John Snow~~.

 

* * *

 

 

 

The dry and barren wastelands rolled on without end, the setting twin suns casting a bloody glow on the merciless landscape that made up the Tatooine deserts. From this height he could just make out the signs of civilisation— if they could be called that— off in the distance. Even from here there was an edge of desperation in the Force, muted only by the sense of perpetual exhaustion that came from those who worked the land, those who had made this place their home—rather than simply a place to hide from authority.

 

And just on the very limits of his senses in the opposite direction from the cesspool of towns and cities, there was the glow—like a winking star on the edge of seeing. Obi-Wan Kenobi was certain that no matter where he was on planet, he would always be able to find that spark in the Force, the pull stronger than any polar planetary point. 

 

  
_Luke_...the name fitted the boy. In his mother's native tongue the name was  _Leucos_  meaning Brightest. In old Tatooinese it translated as  _Lux_ , for Light. _Brightest Light_. He would be nine now...the same age Anakin had been when he had first met him here on Tatooine only several miles away from this exact spot. He'd caught glimpses of the boy out and about with his Aunt, sometimes his Uncle too when Owen Lars managed to pry himself away from working on the farm. He had the same shock of blond hair he remembered Anakin having at that age, the same intense blue eyes that would break hearts when he was old enough, mixed with the slight build and gentility of his mother's features. He wouldn't be as tall or broad, but he'd be just as agile and brilliant.

 

So much of the boy however came from his guardians. He could see Beru's kindness in the boy's face, and even at the age of nine there was a humble air about him that was entirely Owen. 

 

Obi-Wan's presence at their homestead had become increasingly unwelcome in the past few years since Luke had come to the age when all children asked questions with the incessant nature of those genuinely curious about everything and anything. And Obi-Wan in his strange robes and foreign sounding mannerisms raised too many questions. And while Obi-Wan had stepped back from being an active member of the boys daily life he still kept a watchful distance. Beru was polite enough if they happened to meet in town. She was a kind woman. She had to be to have raised Luke knowing full well what had happened, who his parents had been, what they had done...

 

Around him the wind began to howl, swirling clouds of dust raged through the air, the sand particles screaming and forming shapes in the distance like the madness of Gods come manifest, howling through the barren emptiness. Obi-Wan barely noticed, it was nothing compared to the turmoil that raged within him now in this particular place the Force had brought him to.

 

_There is no anger, there is peace..._

 

So much pain, so much raw agony, it was embedded within the stone...

 

_There is no ignorance, there is knowledge..._

 

But how could any of them have known it would come to this...it had been their duty to know...

 

_There is no passion, there is serenity..._

 

All that pain, transmuted in to raw fury...he could hear the blade igniting...the screaming roar of pain, a child's grief manifesting horrifically through the Force...

 

_There is no chaos, there is harmony..._

 

...slashing through the air, cutting through flesh and bone with a terrible and brutal grace, the blade and its wielder in perfect chaotic harmony...

 

_There is no death, there is the Force..._

 

It filled the air...the scent of fire on the wind and the iron tang of blood...limbs torn from torsos, flesh rendered from bone...the warriors had died quickly, their women and children cut down like sheaths of dust corn to the Reapers sickle. All of them gone. An entire tribe of Sand People in one fateful night. It had been decades ago and yet the sense of it still permeated the land. Even in the wastelands where sparse wildlife could survive there was always the sound of life, from womp rats to bonegnawer chicks learning to fly to the yowling yelps of predators on the hunt. Here there was nothing but the howling winds. Here there was only Darkness...

 

The Sand People had never returned here...they had come and taken their dead away, he knew that much. But they had never come back, and never would. They were too scared. 

They called him their Devil, with his glowing yellow eyes and his burning sword of vengeance. They believed they had angered a god by allowing the woman to die...Shmi, poor woman, Force rest her soul though she would turn in her grave to know what her boy had done...what he had become...

 

  
_Promise me you will train him_...

 

Perhaps they had...

 

  
_He is...the Chosen One_...

 

Just perhaps not the one Chosen for the Light...

 

He glanced once more around the deserted camp, reaching out sadly to a large rock where an idol of sorts had been carved in to the stone, the face made in to a death mask by a single deep slash that ran the full length. Any blood that might have once been there had been worn away by the elements, but he could just make out the scorch marks that identified the weapon used as being a lightsaber...He let his hand drop to his side, feeling the presence of his lightsaber at his hip.  _Fool._  He had known about this place, since the moment he landed on Tatooine, he had always known that this place existed. It exuded danger, and Obi-Wan had done his best to ignore it. It made him feel sick to touch it with the Force, and now he knew why...it was the same feeling of lingering death that had radiated from the Temple.

 

His hand clenched around the cold hilt of his blade. _Fool,_ he thought again angrily _, to think a lightsaber could defend against the dark ghosts of the past..blasted cursed fool.._

 

Around him the sandstorm died just as quickly as it had begun—such was the way of life here—and taking with it all of his anger and all of his hatred and leaving him with nothing but one certainty

 

.... _I did this_...

 

The thought that plagued him every moment of every waking hour,  _I did this...I should have known, I should have helped_...it settled like a dead weight in his stomach, his heart aching with sorrow and his thoughts dark and heavy...the Sand People, the Younglings...everything, it was all his fault...he should have been there...his stomach twisted as another memory of Anakin, tall and wiry, coming in to the build of a man, but with the desolate grief of a child on his face as he told his Master that his mother was dead...and Obi-Wan had known that Anakin, bright little Anni who ran rings around his peers and elders alike and who despite his arrogance would risk his life out of kindness for a stranger...would never be the same again...that boy had died along with his mother, and Obi-Wan had allowed him to maintain his silence, not wanting to bring it up, not wanting to cause Anakin pain...but really, just not wanting to know. He had hoped of course that Anakin would tell him in the end and prove to his Master either one way or another his doubts to be false or true. But it wouldn't have mattered, Anakin was his brother, and he would have done anything to protect him from...from what? Himself? The Council... _anything..._

 

The desert wastelands were silent now, with the wind gone the dust settled and the bare bones of the landscape were outlined against the now nearly set suns. Already darkness was rapidly falling, the cold creeping over the dunes, sudden and inevitable and bone freezingly brutal. Still not moving Obi-Wan watched in transfixed horror as the idol face morphed in the descending darkness, his fingers reaching out again to the suddenly skull like apparition...

 

His hand jerked back suddenly as the Force seemed to ignite behind him. Turning quickly his hand flying to his lightsaber again expecting to see someone standing behind him Obi-Wan started to see he was still alone. The Force however burned brightly and steadily, joyous and warm to his senses and lighting up the entire world where once there had only been darkness. Obi-Wan smiled... _Luke_...the boy was growing stronger with each and every day. Wild and untrained as his abilities were he would soon surpass his father...His smile faded and his face creased in to a frown. He would need to return to the Lars homestead at some point.  Though he was sure he would not be welcome, the boys guardians would understand the necessity of keeping Luke shielded, far out in the outer rim as they were, the possibility of other Force users picking up on a beacon like that wasn't entirely unlikely. 

 

_Best to get it over with really..._

 

Drawing his robes tighter around him to keep out the cold Obi-Wan followed it now, his little ray of sunshine in the dark. If he kept walking he'd be there by morning, hopefully in time to catch Beru rather than Owen...

 

As he walked he felt the shift in both himself and the Force, he was leaving part of himself behind here in this place. Better to leave it to die in the dark than have it fester inside of him. Memories and regrets were for people at the end of their days. Obi-Wan Kenobi might have failed Anakin Skywalker but Ben Kenobi still had a duty to do and would always be there for Luke Skywalker, even if it killed him.

* * *

 


End file.
